Abstract

The experiment was carried out to study the effects of inorganic fertilizers on growth and yield of chilli in polybags under the rain shelter structure at Faculty of Sustainable Agriculture, University of Malaysia Sabah, Sandakan campus. NPK Green 15: 15: 15 were applied as basal application for the vegetative growth of the chilli plant. Four levels (5,10, 15,20 gram per plant) of inorganic fertilizer NPK Blue Special (N: P2O5: K2O: Te = 12: 12: 17: 2) were evaluated on chilli (Capsicum annuum L. ) with five replications for each treatment. The application of NPK Green were stopped until the chilli plant starts to fruit.
Five gram per plant of NPK Blue fertilizer recommended by the Department of Agriculture (DOA) was act as the control. This experiment was arranged in Completely Randomized
Design (CRD). Chilli plant were planted in 20 topsoil filled polybags sized 16x16 cm. Parameterss uch as plant height (cm), stem girth (cm), fresh fruit weight (g), fruit length
(cm), fruit diameter (cm), number of fruits per plant, and the total fruit yield (g) was assessed in the experiment. The result of the experiment shows highly significant difference (p<0.01) in the plant height, stem girth, fresh fruit weight, total fruit number per plant and total fruit yield of chilli while the fruit length and fruit diameter shows a significant difference at p<0.05. The best treatment was shown by the 15 gram per plant of NPK level whereas the least was shown by the control treatment (5 gram per plant). This indicates that the application of inorganic fertilizer NPK significantly enhanced and promotes the growth and yield of chili (C. annuum L. )